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GREENACRE 
ON THE 
PISCATAQUA. 



X 



ANNA JOSEPHINE INGERSOLL. 



NEW YORK: 

THE ALLIANCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

"LIFE" BUILDING. 



1 



87857 



Library of Conqrose 

Twti Copies Received 
DEC 13 1900 

Copynght entry 



No 



SECOND COPY 

Odiv«red to 

OHD£R DIVISION 
DEC 171900 



Copyright, 1900, 

by 

Anna Josephink Ingersoll. 










A GLIMPSE OF GREENACRE. 



GREENACRE ON THE PISCATAQUA. 



TO the traveler speeding tlirough 
New England on the Eastern 
Division of the Boston & Maine 
Railroad there is no hint of any 
special attraction at the plain lit- 
tle station of Eliot. A drive of 
three miles takes you past thrifty 
homes, with meadows reaching to 
the broad, swift Piscataqua, and 
through stretches of dense woods 
down to the river bank, wrhere al- 
most at the entrance to Long Reach 
Bay stands the Greenacre Inn. It 
is a quiet spot, with gently sloping 
banks, and off to the west lies a long 
meadow with its fringe of apple trees 
and birches reflected in the waters of 
the bay. There is a sense of space and 
distance, a limitless expanse of sky, 
a broad sweep of river and bay with 



the distant low-lying banks, and far 
beyond, ever changing in hue against 
the sunset sky, range the foothills 
of the White Mountains. With the 
going down of the sun a golden 
bridge spans the waters glowing and 
radiant at our feet. 

Once there was a desperate strug- 
gle here; men fought for their lives, 
while women and children hurried for 
shelter over the fields to the garrison 
house with its high stockade. There 
are yet signs to be seen of this old 
house, and in the fields about the 
plough has turned up many an ar- 
row-head. As late as 1747 the men 
of this district carried firearms to 
church. 

Down in the hollow below the Inn 
where the apple trees and locusts 
bloom, there was a large ship-yard 
in the fifties, where the keel of many 
a good ship was laid. The fleetest 
sailing vessel of her day. The Night- 
ingale, built to carry Jenny Lind 



Goldsmith back to Sweden, floated 
out on the tide from these cool, green 
shores. She never fulfilled her pur- 
pose, and years after was captured 
by the government with a cargo of 
wretched human beings bound for the 
slave market. 

The EHot of to-day is a quiet farm- 
ing town of 1,500 inhabitants, lying 
for six miles along the banks of the 
beautiful Piscataqua, just over the 
Maine border line, four miles from 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There 
are three or four churches, a grocery 
store or two, and one hotel. Green- 
acre Inn, built ten years ago by a 
company of enterprising Eliot peo- 
ple. The Inn, a small house holding 
about one hundred people, was for a 
few years a resort for Bostonians. 
Here John Greenleaf Whittier came, 
drawing about him a circle of friends. 

In 1893, that wonderful year, 
when, through the World's Parlia- 
ment of Religions, men were brought 

5 



to a recognition of the fundamental 
points of contact in the religions of 
the world, Miss Sarah J. Farmer, 
only daughter of Moses G. Farmer, 
the inventor, conceived the idea of 
continuing at Eliot, Maine, her birth- 
place, the movement inaugurated at 
Chicago . She determined to form a cen- 
tre at the Greenacre Inn, where think- 
ing men and women, reaching out 
to help their fellows through means 
tried and untried, might find an audi- 
ence recognizing not alone revealed 
truth, but truth in the process of 
revelation. It was believed that 
for those of different faiths, different 
nationalities, different training, the 
points of contact might be found, 
the great underlying principles — the 
oneness of truth, the brotherhood of 
man ; that to the individual this spot 
might mean the opening door to free- 
dom, the tearing down of walls of 
prejudice and superstition. The teach- 
ers and lecturers on this broad plat- 
6 




THE GREAT TENT. 



form were to give their services with- 
out remuneration. There was no en- 
dowment fund, and the expense of 
their transportation and entertain- 
ment was met through voluntary 
contributions. Where else in the 
world's history do we find such an- 
other cornerstone? 

In July, 1894, Greenacre Inn was 
opened to guests under Miss Farmer's 
management. Less expensive accom- 
modations were to be had in the farm 
houses about. An encampment of 
tents pitched on the river bank, over 
in the meadow where the old garrison 
house stood, gave those desiring it 
the freedom of open-air life. Although 
six miles from the sea, the tide rises 
high at Eliot, and the opportunities 
for salt-water bathing are fine. 

The great lecture tent seating three 
hundred was raised just beyond the 
stone wall of the meadow. The after- 
noon of the third day of July had 
been appointed for the opening exer- 



cises of the Greenacre Lecture Course, 
and only a few had gathered. Mrs. 
Ole Bull, of Cambridge, delivered the 
address of welcome. At the close of 
the exercises we stood with heads un- 
covered to raise the stars and stripes. 
For days the sky had been dark and 
lowering, but as we sang ''The Bat- 
tle Hymn of the Republic," the clouds 
parted a little and a flood of sunshine 
illuminated the scene. It was with 
every man's hand to the rope that 
the flag of our country went up, and 
under it there floated for the first 
time over these green fields a white 
flag with the legend *' Peace " upon it. 
The first year brought such men 
as Henry Wood, Frank B. Sanborn, 
Edward Everett Hale, O. C. Dolbear, 
Lewis G. Janes, Ralph Waldo Trine, 
Vivekananda, W. J. Colville and oth- 
ers, and they have continued to come ; 
such women as Ursula Gestefeld, 
Helen Van-Anderson, Josephine Locke, 
Abby Morton Diaz. The programs 
8 



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EDWARD EVERETT HALE and SARAH J. FARMER. 



of the succeeding years have added 
many names of value— J. Vance Che- 
ney, John Angus MacYannel, William 
Norman Guthrie, John S. Clark, S. T. 
Rorer, Edna D. Cheney, William Ord- 
way Partridge, Samuel Walter Foss, 
Carroll D. Wright, Samuel Richard 
Fuller, MaryA.LivermorejEmily Per- 
kins Stetson, Elizabeth Boynton Har- 
bert, Edwin Elwell, Lucia Ames Mead, 
Helen M. Cole, Kate Tannett Woods, 
Edwin Markham, George D. Herron, 
Julia Osgood, Edward S. Morse, Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison, W. T. Harris, 
H. W. Stetson, Lyman C. Newell, 
Egbert Morse Chesley, Sara G. Far- 
well, Thomas Ryan, Mary Lowe Dick- 
erson, John J. Enneking, Frederick 
Reed, Filmore Moore, Mary Proctor, 
Mitchell Tyng, Ellen Crosby, Helen 
Weil, Josiah Strong, Henry Hoyt 
Moore, W. H. Tolman, Thomas Van 
Ness, T. Yanaguchi, Ethel Puffer, 
Rachel Foster Avery, John Bowles, 
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Neal Dow, 
9 



J. T. Trowbridge, Alfred Norton, El- 
len A. Richardson, Arthur Dow, Ly- 
sander Dickerman, Sadie American, 
Lilian Whiting, Ernest F. Fenollosa, 
Theodore F. Wright, C. A. L. Tot- 
ten, Caroline H. Hindobro, Amanda 
Deyo. 

A wonderful sifting process has 
been going on through these years, 
working silently for the most part, 
eliminating the man with the per- 
sonal ''ism," the ''fad," the so-called 
crank, and sometimes finding, in the 
abundance of what the world calls 
chaff, the kernel of wheat. 

Since the first season the order of 
the day has been much the same. At 
nine o'clock devotional exercises in 
the lecture tent, and then the leisurely 
trooping up over the hills to the 
Lysekloster pines, where, in pleasant 
weather, the platform of the morning 
is a carpet of pine needles under a 
great pine tree. On rainy days, the 
morning lectures are given under a 



i 




SWAMI'S PINE. 



tent in the pines, and the afternoon 
lectures during the last few years 
have been given in the new lecture 
hall, The Eirenion; but on bright 
days ^sre listen to music and the lec- 
ture of the day in the great tent, with 
its sides ^de open to the river, and 
with all the life and freedom of the 
summer about. At sunset there is a 
quiet hour in the tent, and once or 
twice a v^eek a musical program. The 
music school, under the direction of 
Miss Mary H. Burnham, has been 
an important factor in the Greenacre 
work. 

In 1896 the general lecture course 
was divided into conferences begin- 
ning Sunday afternoon and continu- 
ing one week, and a Nature School 
out in the woods and fields was 
formed for the children, under Daniel 
Batchellor and Melvin G. Dodge. In 
this same year, a school of com- 
parative religions was founded un- 
der the directorship of Doctor Lewis 



G. Janes, director of the Cambridge 
Conferences. 

This school has been one of the 
strongest features of the Greenacre 
Lecture Course. The sessions have 
been held during August under the 
pines. The motive has been compara- 
tive study and never propagation of 
doctrine. During the four years Lewis 
G. Janes, director of the school, has 
given a number of valuable lectures 
upon various subjects. This last 
summer's work held nothing more 
broadly helpful and suggestive than 
Dr. Janes's course upon social science 
and applied religion. The Swamis 
Yivekananda, Saradananda and Ab- 
hedananda have in turn expounded 
the profound philosophy of the Ve- 
danta. 

The history, ethics and theology 
of the Talmud were presented by 
Rabbi Joseph Silverman; the teach- 
ing of Jesus by Jean du Buy, and the 
religion and philosophy of the Jains 



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Mr. GANDHI, Dr. JANES, and SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 



by Virchand R. Gandhi; Nathaniel 
Schmidt of Cornell University gave 
this year an exceptionally interesting 
course on ancient Hebrew philoso- 
phers. A brilliantly dramatic pre- 
sentation of the sacred and religious 
customs in Mohammedan countries 
was given by the Syrian Shehadi 
Abd-Allah Shehadi. From the stand- 
point of the Christianized Hindu, T. 
B. Pandian described the social condi- 
tions and missionary work in India. 
Lack of space alone forbids the men- 
tion of many other valuable contribu- 
tions to this program. The discus- 
sions after the lectures are carried on 
with a calm, judicial temper, a cour- 
tesy, a respect for the opinions of 
others, an evident desire for ^' Truth 
and not for victory," that cannot fail 
to make them educational. 

As we glance over the programs of 

the years Ave find Edward Griggs on 

''The Art of Living," Smith Baker's 

morning classes on developmental 

13 



psychology with their wonderful les- 
sons in life, W. S. Tomlin's talks on 
music, E. P. Powell on *'The Evolu- 
tion of a Home," Hezekiah Butter- 
worth on **The Art of Story Tell- 
ing." Francis B. Hornbrook talks on 
Browning, B. O. Flower on Marcus 
Aurelius and Epictetus,W. D.Howells 
reads his *'Etruria," Annie Besant 
lectures on ''Immortality," C. H. A. 
Bjerregaard on ''The Mystic Life," 
John Fiske on " The Cosmic Roots of 
Self-sacrifice," Lester A. Ward on 
"The Real Moral Evolution," Joseph 
LeConte on ' ' The Relation of Biology 
to Philosophy," Henry Wood on 
"Thinking as a Fine Art," Bolton 
Hall on "Single Tax," Frederick Spier 
on "The Eight Hour Law," Eltweed 
Pomeroy on "Direct Legislation," 
Henry Blackwell on "Woman Suf- 
frage," J. H. Hyslop on "Problems of 
Physiology," Booker T. Washington 
on "Tuskegee," Elihu Thomson on 
" Electricity of the Future," Cyrus F. 
14 



Brackett on '' The Past and the Pres- 
ent Outlook of Electrical Science," 
Jacob Riis on ^*How the Other Half 
Lives." 

Rare opportunities for help have 
been given along metaphysical lines 
by Charles Brodie Patterson, Horatio 
Dresser, Paul Tyner, Ellen M. Dyer, 
Emma Louise Nickerson, Helen Yan- 
Anderson and others. 

Who can forget Emerson Day in 
the Cathedral Pines ! Frank B. San- 
born, the presiding officer, v^as the 
last resident member of the Con- 
cord School of Philosophy, and the 
friend and companion of Emerson 
and Thoreau. We sit about under 
the trees and listen to tender intimate 
touches from Emerson's life and expe- 
rience. We hold his letters, written 
seventy years ago, in our hands. 
Then Charles Malloy gives a series of 
Emerson readings, with lines and in- 
terlines of interpretation, the wealth 
of a lifetime of study. The great tent 
15 



is crowded Sunday afternoon with 
the people of the countryside to hear 
Edward Everett Hale. He gives us a 
mighty summing up of the reasons 
for peace, from the spiritual as well 
as from the historical standpoint. 
For three summers under a tree in 
the Lysekloster pines we have spent 
a morning ^th Joseph Jefferson in 
informal discussion . In the afternoon 
the tent is again crowded to hear him 
on ''The Possibilities of the Drama," 
from the standpoint of a great 
actor. 

One summer under these same pines 
Dharmapala, the Buddhist, pitched 
his tent; sometimes teaching from 
the platform, but more often from 
the door of his tent, a striking fig- 
ure in his orange robe. Seventeen 
different faiths were represented that 
year at Greenacre. How times have 
changed since the good people — not 
many miles distant — heard in the 
dead of night the click of the horses' 

i6 




JOSEPH JEFFERSON. 



hoofs carrying their minister forty 
miles to Salem to be tried for witch- 
craft ! 

The Parliament of Religions, Sun- 
day, August 30, 1897, was a notable 
occasion. The tent was crowded to 
OYerflowing, the sides wide open to 
the river and the fields. A platform 
beautifully decorated with pines was 
occupied by a remarkable group of 
persons : Miss Farmer, in the centre ; 
Lewis G. Janes, presiding; Yirchand 
R. Gandhi, representative of the Jains, 
in native violet dress and yellow tur- 
ban ; Charles Brodie Patterson of the 
broad school of mental science ; Sara- 
dananda, the Vedantist, in the flame- 
colored robe and turban of his order, 
and by his side the Quaker, Edward 
Rawson; C. B. Young, Boston, and 
William A. Key, London, of the 
Unitarian church; Horatio Dresser, 
editor of the Journal of Practical 
Metaphysics; K. S. Guthrie of the 
Episcopal church; Paul Carus, edi- 
17 



tor of the Monist and Open Court, 
of Chicago ; Jehanghier Cola in the 
-white dress of the Parsee, represent- 
ing Zoroastrianism ; Mrs. Ole Bull, 
founder of the Cambridge Confer- 
ences; Alfred Martin, pastor of the 
free church of Tacoma, Washington, 
and Rabbis Fleischer and Berkowitz, 
of Philadelphia. The brilliant assem- 
bly, the picturesque colors, the scent 
of pine, the setting of river and mead- 
ow, the earnest, listening company, 
the few simple words of the speakers 
showing the essential unity of religion 
— all served to make an occasion not 
to be forgotten. 

Although many charming circles 
have been formed in the farmhouses, 
the social life centers naturally about 
the Inn, where most of the lecturers 
have been entertained. There is sim- 
plicity of life, a charming absence 
of conventionality, an almost invari- 
able recognition of the man apart 
from circumstances. Small circles 
i8 



meet on the piazza, along the river 
bank or in the meadows, discussing 
questions with the recognized leaders 
of thought. ''And the people speak 
from their character, not from their 
tongue." When else could you hear, 
without surprise, in the momentary 
lull of a hotel dining-room? — *'I do 
not know whether the spirits return 
to this earth, but I do know that 
progress is the law of the soul." 

There are opportunities day after 
day for the individual to take his 
problem to the one best fitted to help 
him, and the personal contact has 
proved as great a factor in develop- 
ment as any words from the plat- 
form. Many a life of inaction has 
been awakened here into service. *' In 
the light of greater lives we see the 
vision of our own." 

In the fact that thousands have 

come to Greenacre, and thousands 

have been turned away for lack of 

accommodations, in the virility and 

19 



force of the minds gathered here, in 
the questions discussed from the plat- 
form that affect the moral welfare 
and therefore the rational progress of 
the world — in the renewing of the 
individual, who, touched by the spirit, 
is born into a larger love for pushing 
starving humanity — in all this is de- 
monstrated the need for such a centre 
in the social organism. 

In a word, Greenacre can best be 
characterized as a centre. It is not 
an organization ; it is not an institu- 
tion, "the lengthened shadow of one 
man," but a great spiritual, formative 
centre, the trend of thought broaden- 
ing with the need of the times. 

The crucial test is therefore not a 
test of the value and purity of the 
ideal, but a test of methods and their 
practical application. Can a move- 
ment depending only upon voluntary 
aid live in the world to-day? Only 
last year a man died in London, who, 
during the last sixty years, has taken 



care of thousands of orphans. The 
money necessary to support this 
immense work was given unsolic- 
ited and used according to the strict- 
est business principles. So far as 
Greenacre amalgamates with the 
highest ethical standards of the busi- 
ness world, the truth it stands for, 
just so far, ''armed with the Sword 
of the Spirit," will it penetrate into 
the heart of the grossest materiaHsm, 
and bring forth the willing tribute of 
an awakening spirit-loving service. 
Greenacre, August, 1899. 



This year, 1900, marks the sev- 
enth season of the Greenacre Lecture 
Course. It was decided to make of 
it a Sabbatical year, a year of quiet 
rest, one in which to review the past 
and consider the future. Although no 
programs have been issued, there has 
been an average of three lectures a 
week, with a daily morning devo- 



21 



tional, and an attendance of nearly 
nine hundred persons. Edward Ev- 
erett Hale, Charles Brodie Patter- 
son, Samuel Richard Fuller, Ralph 
Waldo Trine, Edward Cummings, 
Paul Tyner, Helen M. Cole, Lyman 
C. Newell, Ellen M. Dyer, R. C. Doug- 
las, Swami Abhedananda, Fillmore 
Moore, Florence Richardson, Richard 
Ingalese, Jean du Buy, and Charles 
Malloy have spoken from the plat- 
form. A much needed rest has made 
necessary Miss Farmer's absence the 
last season. 

1901 will undoubtedly mark a new 
era in the development of this move- 
ment : a movement which stands, let 
it be remembered, not for personality 
or place, but for life, for progress. 

Anna Josephine Ingersoll. 

Greenacre, September, 1900. 



22 



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